The present invention relates to a child resistant cap for baby bottles and toddler sipping cups.
A common innocent nuisance caused by toddlers or young children is when they unscrew the nipple caps from their baby bottles or the tops from their closed sipping cups, thereby spilling the beverage contents. The spilled milk causes unpleasant odors to accumulate on clothes and furniture. In addition, juices, such as grape juice, stain easily and are difficult to remove.
Unfortunately, most baby bottles and sipping cups can be loosened and screwed by even a small child""s manipulation. Moreover, most are loosened initially, to let air in to facilitate sucking of the beverage through the nipple.
Child resistant caps are known, but mainly in the medicine container field to prevent access to the potentially harmful contents therein.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,202 of Shamis describes a child""s drinking cup that has a forced-upward cap that needs a latch to be disengaged to be unscrewed off
U.S. Pat. No. 5,893,473 of Morris recognizes a child resistant closure for a medicine container where the cap is freely rotatable and spins, unless downward pressure is applied to unscrew the cap. U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,752 of Meyer describes that a cap which is also freely rotatable unless downward pressure is applied.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 364,316 of Humphrey describes a covered sipping cup in general. U.S. Pat. No. 3,885,712 of Libit, U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,983 of Pauls, U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,691 of Burke U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,031 of Lohrman U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,599 of Seddon, U.S. Pat. No. 5,143,237 of Lindsey, U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,702 of Fogil, U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,127 of Barriac and U.S. Pat. No. 5,685,445 of Dobbs all describe locking caps which use locking tabs that must be disengaged by force before the caps can be opened.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,496 of Rudell, U.S. Pat. No. 5,147,066 of Snider, U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,987 of Solland and U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,342 of Chomik describe children""s drinking cups with various types of locking caps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,563 of Cirami describes a cigarette lighter with a cap that moves rotationally and downward to operate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,965 of King describes a medicine cap ring which requires rotation and downward pressure to open.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,988,413 of Nagel describes a toothpaste tube that has a cup that needs downward pressure to rotate and unthread.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,285,917 of Hoffman and U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,550 of Dejonge describe caps with latches that must be moved to unscrew the cups.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,817 of Wiles, U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,181 of Seidler and U.S. Pat. No. 4,319,690 of Birrell all require downward pressure to open the caps.
However, these caps of the prior art do not describe a convenient screw-off type of cap, with a sanitary cover, for a child""s beverage container, such as a nippled bottle or sipping cup, that can only be opened by adult manipulation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a child resistant cap for baby bottles and toddler sipping cups.
It is also an object of the present invention to prevent toddlers or young children from unscrewing the nipple caps from their baby bottles or the tops from their closed sipping cups, thereby spilling the beverage contents.
It is yet another object of the present invention to prevent unpleasant odors and difficult to remove stains from accumulating on clothes and furniture.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a tightenable closure for a cap for a child""s beverage container.
It is further an object of the present invention to permit free rotation of an outer operating ring cap in the screw-off direction about an inner screw cap, without substantial user compressive force.
It is yet still another object of the present invention to provide a user-removable sanitary protection cap which is removably mounted upon a child-proof beverage container cup at a sufficient height and volume therewithin to accommodate a mounted-in-place baby bottle nipple in a sanitary position therein.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an aftermarket childproof beverage container cap which can be easily designed to mate with standard threads used by a number of manufacturers of popular brands of baby bottles.
It is additionally an object of the present invention to provide a childproof beverage container cap which has a significant frictional counter-torque that is generated proportional to the downward force exerted thereon.
It is yet another object of the present invention to improve over the disadvantages of the prior art.
In keeping with these objects and others which may become apparent, the present invention includes a child-resistant closure that prevents a toddler or other young child from unscrewing the top off from a beverage container, such as a nippled milk bottle or a covered sipping cup, and spilling its contents on furniture or other inappropriate locations. The childproof beverage container cap prevents ugly staining of clothes or furniture by difficult to wash beverages, such as grape juice.
Structurally, the child-resistant closure for the beverage container includes an inner screw cap which is threadably mountable on the beverage container, such as the milk bottle with a nipple, or upon the sipping cup. An outer operating ring cap is mounted on the inner cap. The outer operating ring cap has a circumferential retaining rim on a lower end thereof to retain the inner cap within the outer cap.
For tightened closure of the outer operating ring cap with the inner cap, the outer operating ring cap has a plurality of downwardly-projecting nibs disposed on an inside top surface thereof.
The inner screw cap has a circumferential engagement ring on an upper surface thereof, wherein the engagement ring of this inner screw cap has a top surface and a plurality of radially disposed ramped notches therein. These ramped notches each respectively have a depressed floor, a vertical boundary wall running between the depressed floor and the top surface on one side of the notch, and a ramp running between the floor and the top surface on another side of the notch.
The downwardly extending nibs of the outer operating ring cap engage the ramped notches of the inner screw cap in a ratchet fashion, to permit tightening of the inner screw cap when these nibs engage the vertical boundary wall of the inner screw cap, as the outer operating ring cap rotates in the screw-on direction. These nibs also to permit free rotation of the outer operating ring cap in the screw-off direction about the inner screw cap, when the nibs engage the ramp, without substantial user compressive force, such as when small child tries to manually rotate the cap.
In contrast to a child""s efforts to twist the cap, when the nibs engage the ramps, they permit effective screw-off torque contact between the nibs of the outer operating ring cap and the ramps of the inner screw cap, but only if there is sufficient adult-user compressive force being applied to the outer operating ring cap, while the cap is turned in the screw-off direction.
This simultaneous compressive force and screw-off turning effects the screw-off loosening of the inner screw cap from its threaded engagement on a beverage container, such as a milk bottle with a nipple or a covered sipping cup.
The circumferential retaining rim of the outer operating ring grasps the inner screw cap, upon this adultuser application of upward force, while the adult turns the cap in the screw-off direction subsequent to screw-off loosening of the inner screw cap. This grasping of the loosened inner screw cap by the retaining rim provides for relatively effortless and convenient adult-user unscrewing of the inner screw cap, for re-filling the beverages container, such as the nippled milk bottle or covered sipping cup.
The present invention therefore provides a method of preventing a child from opening a beverage container, and spilling the contents therefrom. In operation, the adult user first fills a child""s drinking container with a beverage and screws on the aforementioned child resistant closure cap. The adult removes this closure, when the child has finished with the beverage, by applying compressive force to the closure and by applying torque in the screw-off direction to the closure, while applying this compressive force to loosen the threaded mounting of the inner screw cap to the beverage container.
When the adult user ceases the compressive force, the adult user applies an upward pulling force to the outer operating ring cap and resumes applying of torque in the screw-off direction, while maintaining an upward pulling force so as to maintain circumferential retaining rim in a grasping contact with the inner screw cap, until the inner screw cap has been completely unscrewed from the beverage container to which it had been mounted.
The child resistant closure is threadably mounted on beverage containers such as standard-thread baby bottles, wherein the inner screw cap has a central aperture to accept a baby bottle nipple mounted therethrough.
The child-resistant closure may also cover a child""s sipping cup, wherein inner screw cap is threadably mountable on the sipping cup.
Optionally, the child resistant closure may also be closed by a user-removable sanitary protection cap, which is removably mounted by a suitable mount on the outer operating ring cap. This sanitary cap has sufficient height and volume therewithin to accommodate the mounted-in-place baby bottle nipple in a sanitary protection therein.
The child resistant closure may also be a user-removable sanitary protection cap, removably mounted by the suitable mount on the outer operating ring cap, wherein the sanitary cap has sufficient height and volume therewithin, to accommodate the drinking-spout on the sipping cup.
The removable sanitary protection cap of the child resistant closure is mounted by mated fluted surfaces which are located both on an underside of the sanitary protection cap and on the surface of the outer operating ring cap, at the points of contact therebetween. This permits the sanitary protection cap to transmit torque bi-directionally to the outer operating ring cap upon the baby bottle or upon the sipping cup.
As a result, both the nippled baby bottle and the child""s sipping cup are conveniently closed so that a toddler or small child cannot remove the cap and spill the contents therefrom.